Update of the week, hope everyone is doing well and has had a good week 😊🥰.
Keira's POV:
Today was media day, but there was the launch of Lionesses Live happening too. During breakfast we'd seen people setting up the area, where it was happening. Leah and G were the first two up.
While Leah and G got ready to go on, the rest of us were doing other media duties. I was doing an interview with Alex and Ellen, about different things. I saw Charlie and Ellie chasing each other in the corner. I turned back around to the interview. As I was answering the interviewer I heard my name being called, I looked over to see Demi cradling a crying Elleã, and Charlie leaning against her. I looked back at the interviewer and asked "could we finish this up, I need to go", the interviewer nodded and said a quick goodbye. As soon as I could I rushed over to Demi, I instantly took Ellie from her and stood rocking her. Charlie came over to me immediately and leaned against me. I wrapped an arm around her and looked over to Demi. "Do you know what happened ?", I asked her. "No, I just saw Charlie walking over to me with Ellie in her arms, both of them in tears". I nodded my head and looked down at Charlie and Elleã both, hugging me. I looked around to see if I could spot Lucy. Once I figured I couldn't see her I turned to Demi and asked "Do you know where Luce is ?", Demi nodded her head and said "I'll go get her", and then walked off. I stood there still rocking Elleã, who wasn't crying loudly anymore, just silently crying, with a few whimpers here and there. I looked down to Charlie, who had tear stains on her cheeks and was holding onto my t-shirt tightly. I looked to see Lucy walking into the huge hall we were in for media day, looking around for us. I watched as Demi pointed us out to her, and she walked quickly over to us. I nudged Charlie to show her that Lucy was here. She looked up at me and then saw Lucy coming and detached herself from me and raced over to Lucy. Lucy quickly lifted her up and she wrapped herself around Lucy like a koala. Lucy came over to me and asked "what happened ?", I shrugged my shoulders and answered "I don't know, I just heard my name being called and looked over to see Ellie in tears and Charlie upset too". Lucy listened and then said "let's go somewhere quiet, so we can talk". I nodded and followed Lucy out of the hall. We walked towards the dining room, which was empty at the moment. I sat down at one of the tables near the back of the room, and Lucy sat opposite me, with Charlie on her lap. I leaned down to look at Elleã who had fallen asleep, exhausted from crying. I looked over to Charlie who was cuddled into Lucy's chest. "Me and Kei aren't going to force you to tell us what happened, but we are worried, and we want to help", Lucy gently said to Charlie, who looked in between us and then quietly said "Ellie tripped over a football, that's why she was crying". I looked down at the sleeping toddler in my arms and rubbed circles on her back and placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "If you want to tell us, why were you upset ?", I gently asked, looking over at Charlie, who remained silent and then slowly spoke "I saw you doing your interview and all of a sudden I just ... I just had a thought, about you and mum leaving me, with the whole visit thing and it all being too much, with the Euros starting", starting to cry again and turning into Lucy's chest. I looked over at Luce who was close to tears. Lucy leaned down and said "I'm gonna tell you about the day I met you", to Charlie, who slowly nodded her head. Lucy continued "on the 24th of August 2009, at 6:30pm, I met the cutest, little angel, do you know who that was ?, it was you. You looked up at me with your big brown eyes, and my heart formed a little hole, that only you could ever fill. And although everything with your dad had happened, and there was still things happening there, I knew that I would never let anything to you, I would protect you with everything I had, give up everything to see your beautiful brown eyes light up and a smile to appear on your face, because you mean the absolute world to me and you always will", looking at Charlie the whole time, Lucy wiped away the tears on her cheeks with her thumb. Charlie didn't say anything, she just leaned back into Lucy's chest and whispered "I love you mum".
All 4 of us sat there for a while, just sitting together, while Elleã slept, and me, Lucy and Charlie remained quiet, with the odd words spoken here and there. I then looked at the time and said "do you wanna go see G and Le, doing the lionesses live ?", looking over at Luce and Charlie. Charlie nodded and gently got up off Lucy's lap. Lucy stood up beside her and Charlie grabbed her hand. I carefully stood up with Elleã in my arms, still fast asleep. "We can grab the stroller on the way", Lucy said to me quietly, to avoid waking Elleã up. I nodded as we walked the hallway, we stopped at the storage room and Lucy grabbed the stroller. I gently leaned down and carefully placed Elleã in it, tucking in the blanket, and putting the cover above her, so that the sun would be blocked out and wouldn't wake her up.
We walked out of reception and walked over to where we could see G and Leah sat in deckchairs chatting away to Joelah and Josh. We sat down in the area behind the camera where a few of our teammates were sat watching.
Once the interview was over Leah walked over to us with Joelah. Joelah started chatting to me and Lucy while Charlie gave Leah a hug and quietly chatted to her. I checked in the stroller to see Elleã waking up, I picked her up and she instantly hid her face in my chest because of the sun, shining brightly above us. I turned back around to see Lucy and Joelah looking at us. "She's adorable, how old is she ?", Joelah asked. "She'll be 2 at the end of the month", Lucy replied. Elleã perked her head up at Lucy's voice and looked over to see Lucy. She reached over to Lucy, who immediately took her from me and starting talking to her. I continued my conversation with Joelah, before it was soon time to head inside for lunch.
As we sat down for lunch, we were told we had a gym session after lunch, so everyone started fuelling up for that. Lucy sat down beside me with Ellie in her lap, munching on pasta and surprisingly little pieces of broccoli, and kicking her legs back and forth. I grabbed her feet to stop her hurting Luce, and she looked over at me and grinned. "We don't kick mumma", I explained, holding onto her feet, so she couldn't continue. Elleã just looked at me and then grabbed another piece of broccoli and shoved it into her mouth. Fortunately she stopped kicking her legs and Lucy looked over at me, silently thanking me.
Elleã and Charlie had always been pretty easygoing. Me and Lucy never really had to give out to them. Of course, there was some occasions where we would have to discuss their behaviour, but they were mostly well behaved. I wasn't around when Charlie hit the 'terrible twos', but from what Lucy has told me, she wasn't too badly behaved. So with Elleã's 2nd birthday coming up, I wasn't too worried that she'd be too badly behaved. Like today, there was always the odd thing I had to explain to her, that isn't acceptable behaviour.
When we were all in the gym, I let Elleã stay near me, where I could see her. Lucy grabbed some of her toys so she could sit and play with them. Charlie went on one of the treadmills beside G and chatted to her. While I was doing weights, Luce came up beside me with Elleã in her arms and quietly said "yesterday me and Ellie made you a bracelet, give the bracelet to mama", nudging Elleã who opened up her hand and showed me a bracelet. I picked it up and put it on, admiring the bracelet. "Thank you baby girl", I said looking at Elleã. "Narly !!", Elleã squealed pointing at my bracelet. I looked down to see a dog charm that looked very similar to Narla. "Ellie picked that charm", Lucy explained. "I love it, thank you", I replied giving Ellie a kiss on her cheek and giving Luce a quick peck too. I instantly saw they were both wearing a matching bracelet to me. Lucy let Elleã down and nudged her over to Charlie, I decided to come along and see what they were up to. Charlie and Alex turned around when they saw us coming. "Give Lottie hers", Lucy said to Elleã, who reached up and gave Charlie a matching bracelet too. She then ran over and wrapped her arms around my legs. Charlie looked at the bracelet and then asked Lucy to help her put it on. "I love it, thanks Ellie", Charlie said, once the bracelet was on. Elleã just looked up at me and grinned. She then rushed over to Charlie who crouched down and Elleã pointed out to her "Narly!!", squealing just like she had shown me. "Yeah, Narly's on it too, because she's part of the family too", Charlie explained to Elleã, who just kept pointing the dog charm of Narla out.
